1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a culture tray, in particular for the rooting of young plants, with parallelled and mutually spaced channels for the accommodation of the young plants.
2. The Prior Art
Culture trays of these types are employed in greenhouses in great numbers for the rooting of young plants, the greenhouses offering a climate favourable for the desired culture plants and an appropriate moisture of the air. It is especially advantageous in this connection, if the rate of water flow used for the control of the humidity of the air and for the watering of the young plants can be kept constant within narrow limits and the flow is still sufficient to provide each young plant with enough water.
The German patent specification DE 198 44 020 typically relates to a culture tray for the rooting of young plants which has parallel and mutually spaced grooves in the form of channels for the accommodation of the young plants. The culture tray has a raised and surrounding edge to warrant sufficient tray stability. The base of the culture tray is shaped to form separate and parallelled channels and a roof-shaped elevation between every two adjacent channels. A given number of interconnected multiple pots with young plants is suspended in each channel so that the pot collars fully cover the pertaining channel and, in particular, the lateral supporting faces. This condition ensures that the water intended for irrigation fully flows over the roof-shaped intermediate zones into the multiple pots, unless the pots are irrigated directly. All surplus water flows through cutouts in the multiple pots and a drain hole in each channel to a water collecting tank.
FR 2 661 068 A1 also describes a culture tray that is equipped with holes in the base zone suitable for the accommodation of downwardly oriented pots and equipped with a surrounding edge which encloses the culture tray. The tray base is arranged lower than the edge, and there are transverse grooves in the tray base at predefinable distances apart from one another to form a rectangular culture tray that is able to receive a defined number of individual pots. The base of the tray has longitudinal channels to suit the longitudinal arrangement of the pots, the channels so distanced relative to each other that one full longitudinal row of pots extends into another longitudinal channel of the tray base.
It must be regarded as a drawback of the well-known embodiment of a culture tray that lifting the young plants out of the multiple pots may be difficult after the roots have grown. This may typically be due to the fact that the earth is difficult to remove from the multiple pots because of the growth of the roots and the grown size of the root and soil bale. It has also been found that the plants when being taken out of the multiple pots often suffer damage. Where former-type culture trays were used, the consumption of the water required for the irrigation of the young plants was generally quite high, and plant diseases, especially fungal diseases, were favoured thereby. In addition, water is not everywhere available in sufficient amounts to irrigate the young plants, depending on the cultivation region.